Thursday, December 10, 2009

As an early Christmas present this year, I got a pair of tickets to the St. Louis showing of Star Wars In Concert. The show was last night and wow was it a fantastic experience.

I've seen the movies more times than I care to think about and listen to the soundtracks quite often, but actually hearing a live symphony orchestra play it is always a different experience. The mixing is different and instruments that may go almost completely unheard on recordings are brought out in concert.

In the hallways, there were many props from the films. Being a costumer, this was fun for me and I took several pictures of various details. In many cases, it's surprising just how undetailed things are. The edges of blasters and the like are not painted especially straight. This is fine on camera, but stands out in person. Meanwhile, the costumes were amazingly detailed. Especially the Amidala dresses. Wow.

Another treat is that the concert was hosted by none other than Anthony Daniels (C-3PO). Of all the original cast, Daniels maintains a reputation with fans of truly enjoying the films and engaging those who love them.

An odd thing that also made the concert enjoyable was the demographic. My girlfriend and I felt very out of place. The audience was primarily people old enough to have seen the movies when they were originally released in theaters and their children. Very few people in my generation were in attendance. It was really nice to see that Star Wars is reaching a whole new generation.

One of the cutest costumes I've ever seen was last night. A young child (probably 2-3) dressed up as Yoda, complete with a green hood and ears. His father remarked that he was "to scale".